Families with Children

Opening Doors established a national goal to end homelessness among families and children by 2020. To reach this critical landmark, we must quickly begin to change the current trajectory on family homelessness. For every child experiencing homelessness today, we must act urgently. Since the launch of Opening Doors in 2010, the number of families with children experiencing homelessness has declined 15 percent; the number of unsheltered families fell 53 percent during that same time period.

Since 2010, there are 25,690 fewer people in families experiencing homelessness on a single night. The decline was most prominent among unsheltered people in families, which decreased by nearly 52 percent. However, the number of sheltered people in families has risen slightly since 2010, by less than one percent. In addition, the Department of Education reports that public schools identified 1,258,182 children as homeless over the course of the 2012-2013 school year.

The fact that family homelessness has been held mostly flat is encouraging, especially given the recession, but now we must make headway and begin to reduce family homelessness.

We know that families face a variety of circumstances and need different supports to avert or escape homelessness. The most common reasons families become homeless are the inability to find stable housing, loss of a job, or work that doesn’t pay enough to afford housing. In addition, other factors that contribute to episodes of homelessness include health crises, domestic violence, having children at a young age, and not having a strong social support network. Preventing and ending homelessness for all families’ needs to be approached with a range of strategies. In addition, we need to be increasingly better at ensuring limited resources are used as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Family Connection: Building Systems to End Family Homelessness is a resource designed to help communities and stakeholders build and implement an effective housing crisis response system for families. The document outlines the federal vision of an end to homelessness among families and identifies key areas of action needed to reach that vision. It has resources, tools and detailed information embedded throughout to support implementation of the policies articulated in the document.

While many resources are available now, USICH with federal agencies and policy experts are developing additional tools that will continue to be added and linked to the Family Connection page. USICH, in partnership with Federal agencies, will publish additional resources as more is learned from the field and Federal partners about effective strategies for building systems to end family homelessness.

TheCore Components of Rapid Re-Housing, developed in partnership with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) identifies the core components of a rapid re-housing intervention.